Wednesday, September 10, 2008

John is Day 5 in Seoul

Well the jet lag is finally wearing off and the culture shock is settling in.... Andrea and I moved into our apartment Sunday night after an 11 1/2 hour movie marathon...thank the jeez for Air Canada upgrades...we had our own personal screen and options to choose our own flicks... and FREE Heineken's (the 4 i pounded made the thought of deep vein thrombosis fade away with every sip...aaaaah beer!)

Our apartment has grown on us after a few days, The shock of moving into someone Else's filth was washed away with the minnows and crusty pile of old shrimp I found under the stove. There is a common colour scheme (as do most things here in Seoul) in our apartment has 70's floral black wallpaper accented with campfire marshmallow green walls. (We will purchase everything in pastel yellow and pink to keep the marshmallow theme alive).

Besides the colour, the apartment will be fantastic!! It is on the top floor of a three story building tucked away from the main drag. We have the corner 2 bedroom suite overlooking a major intersection. It is just far enough away to be quite quiet even at rush hour. Our landlord owns a flower shop down the street and we live above a popular lunchtime restaurant. We have 2 beds and 2 stools to sit on...the stools sit about 18 inches off the ground as do every seat I have had the pleasure to enjoy...my knees are at my ears!!

We live in an older part of old Seoul loaded with markets and Hofs (bars) and hundreds of restaurants. It seems like every alley you look down is another vibrant chaotic neon experience.....Andrea is a champion at reading and speaking Korean so we have been immersed in real Korean cuisine since day 1...I love it...Last night was Sam-gyeop-sal....Fried Bacon strips lay on a hotplate (we cook our own at the table). The plate is angled so the grease runs down into a trap at one end...The idea is to put all of your veggies and Kimchi in the avalanche of running grease, then wrap it all up in lettuce and hot sauce and throw it back....truly unbelievable... (definitely a once in a while type meal though as I am sure the calories are equivalent to at least 2.7 big macs). Generally, the food is quite healthy and very spicy!! I think I have tried something new every day.

I am in the land of "knock offs" and i see it everywhere, poor translations of popular brands and random t-shirts with random English phrases on them. The best so far has been:

CreepCreepCreepCreep

and "Kiss my Amps!",

An 8 year old in my class has a cardboard pencil box that looks like a novel...A must read called "The Davinci COAT" by DON Brown....

We are one subway stop away from our school ans the commute takes about 20minutes door to door. Andrea and I are 2 of 6 "expats" working for AVALON ENGLISH+ Academy...Our classes start at 410 and end at 925 (we work 3 to 10)...I have an 80 minute break halfway through. The largest class has 14 kids...generally all the same age. Most are very scared of the giant white man standing in front of them...